Drone
by AthenaMay24
Summary: Takes place immediately after "Blaze of Glory" The way Neric shippers want it to end. Things come to light after Eric crashed Nell's drone.


**A/N Hello, everyone out there in internet-land. Since all of my other ships have pretty much been done in at this moment, I thought I would immerse myself in the only fandom that hasn't let me down. Thank you to the NCIS:LA writers for being my only joy in the world right now. This takes place immediately after the episode **_**Blaze of Glory. **_**This is the way it should have ended, at least in my opinion. I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review!**

**Disclaimer: Even though this is the only fandom that hasn't abandoned me, I sadly own nothing. **

Drone

"I think we got hacked again," Eric joked as the drone skittered to the ground.

He expected a laugh, but Nell just looked up at him a minute longer. She still had her arms half around him on the pretext of helping him fly the drone and, realizing such, she jumped away like a scared cat. "Sorry," she said under her breath, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear embarrassedly.

Eric smiled easily, "No problem."

Nell cleared her throat, "That was a pretty good run for a beginner," she said, "Most people can't fly like that on their first go around."

"I had a good teacher," Eric replied, smiling. There was a comfortable pause before Eric broke the easy mood, "I really am sorry about ditching you for Blaze and the whole way I've been acting and everything."

"I told you, it's not a big deal," Nell repeated, rolling her eyes. "Besides, it's obvious why you acted like that." Eric did that cute little thing with his eyebrows that meant he was confused, so Nell continued, "Granger told you that you were too old for the op."

"Yeah? He was right."

"Mm-Hmm, but I think your man-pride got a little bruised so you had to prove, or try to prove, that you were young enough for someone like Blaze," Nell explained, heading back to the desk to pick up supplies to fix the drone with.

Eric didn't respond to Nell's theory, but he was thinking that his quest was more along the lines of making Nell jealous, and didn't have _that_ much to do with his 'man-pride'. He was quiet as he followed her back to her makeshift work station, and she took that as confirmation that she was correct in her assumptions.

Nell looked up, "Can I have that, please?" she motioned to the controller still in Eric's hands.

"Oh, here," he handed it over, but as he did so, his thumb brushed the tablet screen and activated one of the controls. The drone flipped and skidded on the floor in response to the brief touch. "Oops."  
Nell ran over to the drone, cradling it in her lap, "Hey, Wolfram, can you grab the electrical tape out of my bag?" she called absentmindedly as she inspected her machine.

"By 'bag' do you mean your purse?" Eric asked awkwardly, "Isn't there some kind of taboo against going in a woman's purse?"

"Eric, c'mon, it's not a big deal. The tape is in the zippered part of the big pocket," Nell called. His view of her was blocked by the wall, so he couldn't judge whether she was upset about the condition of her drone, or just exasperated at him.

"Okay," he answered nervously. She was probably right, it wasn't that big of a deal. "Why do you have electrical tape in your—"

Nell heard him stop. Had he seen her tampons, or something? "Eric?" she called, carefully putting her drone down and walking to where he was standing, her open purse in front of him. He held the tape in one hand—and a bright yellow sticky note in the other.

Eric slowly spun to face her, "You keep this in your purse?" He sounded incredulous.

"Yeah," Nell sounded defensive, plucking the Post-it from his stunned fingers. She smoothed it out slightly. The bright patch of paper was worn, but Eric's scrawl was still legible. "It was the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me, outside of my family," Nell added as justification, feeling embarrassed.

It didn't matter to her (at least, she didn't think it did) if Eric didn't cherish her words that day as much as she did his, but she wasn't expecting Eric to respond the way he did when he found out. She also hadn't exactly planned for him to find out, either.

"Oh," Eric said. "I'm glad you kept it," he offered humbly. He couldn't figure out how to show to her how much what she'd just said meant to him.

"Of course I did!" Nell exclaimed. Eric began frantically fumbling in the back pocket of his shorts. "What-?" Nell started to ask what he was looking for.

"I just thought you should know," Eric started, pulling his own Post-it out of his wallet, "that I kept mine too."

Nell blinked. "Really?" she stared at her own precise words in disbelief.

"Of course!" Eric mimicked her tone from earlier, rolling his eyes. "I couldn't tell you how I felt about what you wrote because we agreed not to let it change anything. And after the way I acted today, I don't think I really deserve to tell you now," he added, looking away and running a hand through his hair.

Nell took a step closer to him. "Did you mean what you wrote?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, but—"

"Then it doesn't matter," Nell wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight hug.

"But I didn't tell you everything," Eric admitted after Nell pulled back, "I mean, I didn't write everything I should have."

"Then tell me now," Nell said softly, remaining extremely close to him. She wasn't at all proud of the way she'd acted recently either, what with the jealousy and then using the drone as an excuse to wrap her arms around Eric. But, at this moment, neither one of those mistakes mattered, nor did any of Eric's. They had a chance to make it right. "Tell me, please?" she repeated.

Eric took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, "I think that every time I see you, you've never been more beautiful. I think that you're the smartest person I know. I love how you're never afraid to say what you think, at least to me. I love how you roll your eyes when someone does something stupid. I think—well, I think I love you, Nell."

There was an excruciatingly long pause. Eric hesitantly peeped at Nell with one eye. What he saw made him open both in surprise. Nell was wearing this look, one Eric had never seen before. It was a look of wonder, and it was beautiful.

Nell seemed to shake herself, making a small noise in the back of her throat. "You're right, that would have changed things," she said finally.

"Has it changed things now?" Eric was too much in shock by the fact that he actually put himself out there to register any hurt yet. He was disappointed at not getting any kind of reciprocation, but he wasn't surprised. He would not have been disappointed, however, if he knew what Nell was thinking.

She was again quiet for a moment, "Yes, I think it did."

Eric sighed, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean—I mean—you asked and I—"

"You don't even know what I mean," Nell broke in.

"What do you mean?" Eric asked nervously.

"I mean that I can do this," Already only a handbreadth away, all Nell had to do was stand on tiptoes to bring her lips to his. She pulled away from the kiss just long enough to finish her sentence, "And being able to kiss the someone I love is a big change for me."

Eric whooped when it finally sank in and physically picked Nell up to spin her around in his enthusiasm.

"_Eric_!" Nell squealed, so he put her down.

"Sorry," Eric smiled sheepishly. They just grinned at each other until Eric said thoughtfully, "What does this mean, exactly?"

Nell shrugged, "I don't know."

"Okay."

"But, before we do anything else, you're helping me fix the drone you destroyed," she added.

"Before _anything _else?" Eric's eyes pleaded with her, so Nell kissed him again, longer this time.

"No more until we fix my baby," she said firmly a minute later.

"I can handle that. But we better fix it fast." Eric said into the laughing eyes of the woman he'd loved for such a long time. He had no idea what would happen, but he didn't really care. And that was okay.

**A/N I'm up in the air about whether or not I should continue this. What do you think? Leave it as a one shot or keep going? I hope everyone enjoyed it, and please leave a review. **


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